Brand strategy for Japan

Global brands in Japan

Brand strategy for Japan

First of all you need to take in that the language of Japan is Japanese, and the writing of Japan is a combination of Chinese characters (漢字), Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ). Roman characters have a different meaning to Japanese people who grow up with Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana, than to Western people who grow up with Roman characters. You may need to create a Katanaka or even Kanji brand, but you need to think it through.

Its hard to internalize for people working for a long time in a company representing a global brand, that this global brand may mean nothing, or mean something totally different in Japan, even if that same brand is incredibly famous in most other countries. This is a trap, which some of the most famous global brands have fallen into. It can take substantial time to internalize this point, and to react in the appropriate way.

It is necessary to build a brand in Japan from scratch, from zero, even if that brand is very famous globally.

Building a brand in Japan

To build a brand in Japan you need to connect to Japanese people’s emotions. In many cases you will need to adapt global brands to Japan. Or you may even want to create a new brand for Japan, or use your existing brands in different ways than you do elsewhere.

Don’t damage or destroy your brand in Japan…

There is a long list of famous global brands, who have seriously damaged or even destroyed there brands in Japan. Once you have seriously damaged or destroyed your brand in Japan, it is almost impossible to recover this brand.